Since I really enjoyed Da Vinci Code, right after I finished reading I looked for similar books. I came across “The Rule of Four”, which was written by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. Though I bought it 2 years ago, I only got to read it last week, and I might as well not have read it.

It’s a confused book, with some paragraphs awesomely written, and then some paragraphs written as if it were chick lit (okay, since the story had 4 boys, ‘boy lit’, if there’s such a thing). It is centered on the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a very old book which has no full english translation. The problem is that no one cares about this book, because it doesn’t have an effect on our present lives. It’s very different from the center of Da Vinci Code, which is a secret that’s so scandalous it will rock the modern Church. (more…)

I wanted to read a light book last week.   I searched my shelf for something I haven’t read yet and came across “The Undomestic Goddess”, written by Sophie Kinsella, author of the famous “Confessions of a Shopaholic” series.

It’s a brainless book, one that you should read when your objective is not at all to learn or be enlightened.  The plot is somewhat impossible – a fantastic lawyer ending up being a housekeeper after she supposedly makes a mistake.   But still I found myself turning the pages, wanting to know what will happen to Samantha’s lovelife.  I guess that’s what I’m really after with chick lit books – sometimes I just want to forget about what’s happening around us (yes, the government sucks).  Isn’t it great that we have these silly books and movies to help us escape even just for a few hours?   C’mon, just give me these couple of hours, before I go back to reality and find out about the latest government fuck-ups.

Thanks to those who sent YM’s, emails, text messages re: last post. No need to worry about me, it’s nothing much really. I’m just sad for him, since it’s his friend, not mine.

Harry and the Half-Blood Prince

Finally finished reading last night! The book is okay, better than the fourth one which I totally did not like, but my favorite is still either Book 2 or 3 (can’t recall which one). I won’t discuss the details now because most of my friends are still reading. I do have several questions, several “it-would-have-been-better-if”s, etc.

There’s one thing though that bugged me althrough out — sometimes I felt that JK Rowling wrote up the scenes with a future movie in mind. I don’t know, it could be just me…

Warning: this is loooooooooooooong! Got it from Rowie’s blog.

BOOKS GALORE!

The rules: Copy and paste the list to your blog, highlight the books that you’ve read, and add three of your own. (I added more.) Another thing: I italicized the books I’m intending to read soon.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien

2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman

4. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling

6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (My favorite book of all time!)

7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne

8. 1984, George Orwell

9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis

10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller

12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks

14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier

15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger

16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame

17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

19. Captain Corellis Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres

20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy

21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell

22. Harry Potter And The Sorcerers philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling

23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling

24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling

25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien

26. Tess Of The DUrbervilles, Thomas Hardy

27. Middlemarch, George Eliot

28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving

29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck

30. Alices Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson

32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett

34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens

35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl

36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute

38. Persuasion, Jane Austen

39. Dune, Frank Herbert

40. Emma, Jane Austen

41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery

42. Watership Down, Richard Adams

43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald

44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas

45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh

46. Animal Farm, George Orwell

47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy

49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian

50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher

51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck

53. The Stand, Stephen King

54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth

56. The BFG, Roald Dahl

57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome

58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell

59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer

60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman

62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden

63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough

65. Mort, Terry Pratchett

66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton

67. The Magus, John Fowles

68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett

70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding

71. Perfume, Patrick Susskind

72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell

73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

74. Matilda, Roald Dahl

75. Bridget Jones’ Diary, Helen Fielding

76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt

77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins

78. Ulysses, James Joyce

79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens

80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson

81. The Twits, Roald Dahl

82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith

83. Holes, Louis Sachar

84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake

85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson

87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons

89. Magician, Raymond E Feist

90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac

91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo

92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel

93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett

94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

95. Katherine, Anya Seton

96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer

97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson

99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot

100. Midnights Children, Salman Rushdie

101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome

102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett

103. The Beach, Alex Garland

104. Dracula, Bram Stoker

105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz

106. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens

107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz

108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks

109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth

110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson

111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy

112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13 1/2, Sue Townsend

113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat

114. Les Miserables, Victor Hugo

115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy

116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson

117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson

118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde

119. Shogun, James Clavell

120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham

121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson

122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray

123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy

124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski

125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver

126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett

127. Angus, Thongs And Full-Frontal Snogging, Louise Rennison

128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle

129. Possession, A. S. Byatt

130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov

131. The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood

132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl

133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck

134. Georges Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl

135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett

136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker

137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett

138. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan

139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson

140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson

141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque

142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson

143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby

144. It, Stephen King

145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl

146. The Green Mile, Stephen King

147. Papillon, Henri Charriere

148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett

149. Master And Commander, Patrick OBrian

150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz

151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett

152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett

153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett

154. Atonement, Ian McEwan

155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson

156. The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier

157. One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, Ken Kesey

158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad

159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling

160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon

161. Moby Dick, Herman Melville

162. River God, Wilbur Smith

163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon

164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx

165. The World According To Garp, John Irving

166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore (again, the kiddie version)

167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson

168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye

169. The Witches, Roald Dahl

170. Charlottes Web, E. B. White

171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables and Gordon Williams

173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway

174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco

175. Sophies World, Jostein Gaarder

176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson

177. Fantastic Mr. Fox, Roald Dahl

178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov

179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach

180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery

181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson

182. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens

183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay

184. Silas Marner, George Eliot

185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis

186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George and Weedon Gross-mith

187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh

188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine

189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri

190. Sons And Lovers, D. H. Lawrence

191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera

192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons

193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett

194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells

195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans

196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry

197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett

198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White

199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle

200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews

201. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien

202. The Eye of the World, Robert Jordan

203. The Great Hunt, Robert Jordan

204. The Dragon Reborn, Robert Jordan

205. Fires of Heaven, Robert Jordan

206. Lord of Chaos, Robert Jordan

207. Winters Heart, Robert Jordan

208. A Crown of Swords, Robert Jordan

209. Crossroads of Twilight, Robert Jordan

210. A Path of Daggers, Robert Jordan

211. As Nature Made Him, John Colapinto

212. Microserfs, Douglas Coupland

213. The Married Man, Edmund White

214. Winters Tale, Mark Helprin

215. The History of Sexuality, Michel Foucault

216. Cry to Heaven, Anne Rice

217. Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, John Boswell

218. Equus, Peter Shaffer

219. The Man Who Ate Everything, Jeffrey Steingarten

220. Letters To A Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke

221. Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn

222. The Vampire Lestat, Anne Rice

223. Anthem, Ayn Rand

224. The Bridge To Terabithia, Katherine Paterson

225. Tartuffe, Moliere

226. The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka

227. The Crucible, Arthur Miller

228. The Trial, Franz Kafka

229. Oedipus Rex, Sophocles

230. Oedipus at Colonus, Sophocles

231. Death Be Not Proud, John Gunther

232. A Dolls House, Henrik Ibsen

233. Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen

234. Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton

235. A Raisin In The Sun, Lorraine Hansberry

236. ALIVE!, Piers Paul Read

237. Grapefruit, Yoko Ono

238. Trickster Makes This World, Lewis Hyde

240. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley

241. Chronicles of Thomas Convenant, Unbeliever, Stephen Donaldson

242. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny

242. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon

243. Summerland, Michael Chabon

244. A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole

245. Candide, Voltaire

246. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More, Roald Dahl

247. Ringworld, Larry Niven

248. The King Must Die, Mary Renault

249. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein

250. A Wrinkle in Time, Madeline LEngle

251. The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde

252. The House Of The Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne

253. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne

254. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan

255. The Great Gilly Hopkins, Katherine Paterson

256. Chocolate Fever, Robert Kimmel Smith

257. Xanth: The Quest for Magic, Piers Anthony

258. The Lost Princess of Oz, L. Frank Baum

259. Wonder Boys, Michael Chabon

260. Lost In A Good Book, Jasper Fforde

261. Well Of Lost Plots, Jasper Fforde

261. Life Of Pi, Yann Martel

263. The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver

264. A Yellow Rraft In Blue Water, Michael Dorris

265. Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder

267. Where The Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls

268. Griffin & Sabine, Nick Bantock

269. Witch of Blackbird Pond, Joyce Friedland

270. Mrs. Frisby And The Rats Of NIMH, Robert C. OBrien

271. Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt

272. The Cay, Theodore Taylor

273. From The Mixed-Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konigsburg

274. The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster

275. The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin

276. The Kitchen Gods Wife, Amy Tan

277. The Bone Setters Daughter, Amy Tan

278. Relic, Duglas Preston & Lincolon Child

279. Wicked, Gregory Maguire

280. American Gods, Neil Gaiman

281. Misty of Chincoteague, Marguerite Henry

282. The Girl Next Door, Jack Ketchum

283. Haunted, Judith St. George

284. Singularity, William Sleator

285. A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson

286. Different Seasons, Stephen King

287. Fight Club, Chuck Palahniuk

288. About a Boy, Nick Hornby

289. The Bookmans Wake, John Dunning

290. The Church of Dead Girls, Stephen Dobyns

291. Illusions, Richard Bach (hey, I was a kid!)

292. Magics Pawn, Mercedes Lackey

293. Magics Promise, Mercedes Lackey

294. Magics Price, Mercedes Lackey

295. The Dancing Wu Li Masters, Gary Zukav

296. Spirits of Flux and Anchor, Jack L. Chalker

297. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice

298. The Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices, Brenda Love

299. Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace

300. The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison

301. The Cider House Rules, John Irving

302. Enders Game, Orson Scott Card

303. Girlfriend in a Coma, Douglas Coupland

304. The Lions Game, Nelson Demille

305. The Sun, The Moon, and the Stars, Stephen Brust

306. Cyteen, C. J. Cherryh

307. Foucaults Pendulum, Umberto Eco

308. Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson

309. Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahniuk

310. Camber of Culdi, Kathryn Kurtz

311. The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand

312. War and Rememberance, Herman Wouk

313. The Art of War, Sun Tzu

314. The Giver, Lois Lowry

315. The Telling, Ursula Le Guin

316. Xenogenesis (or Liliths Brood), Octavia Butler

317. A Civil Campaign, Lois McMaster Bujold

318. The Curse of Chalion, Lois McMaster Bujold

319. The Aeneid, Publius Vergilius Maro (Vergil)

320. Hanta Yo, Ruth Beebe Hill

321. The Princess Bride, S. Morganstern (or William Goldman)

322. Beowulf, Anonymous

323. The Sparrow, Maria Doria Russell

324. Deerskin, Robin McKinley

325. Dragonsong, Anne McCaffrey

326. Passage, Connie Willis

327. Otherland, Tad Williams

328. Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay

329. Number the Stars, Lois Lowry

330. Beloved, Toni Morrison

331. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christs Childhood Pal, Christopher Moore

332. The mysterious disappearance of Leon, I mean Noel, Ellen Raskin

333. Summer Sisters, Judy Blume

334. The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo

335. The Island on Bird Street, Uri Orlev

336. Midnight in the Dollhouse, Marjorie Filley Stover

337. The Miracle Worker, William Gibson

338. The Genesis Code, John Case

339. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevensen

340. Paradise Lost, John Milton

341. Phantom, Susan Kay

342. The Mummy or Ramses the Damned, Anne Rice

343. Anno Dracula, Kim Newman

344: The Dresden Files: Grave Peril, Jim Butcher

345: Tokyo Suckerpunch, Issac Adamson

346: The Winter of Magics Return, Pamela Service

347: The Oddkins, Dean R. Koontz

348. My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok

349. The Last Goodbye, Raymond Chandler

350. At Swim, Two Boys, Jaime ONeill

351. Othello, by William Shakespeare

352. The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas

353. The Collected Poems of William Butler Yeats

354. Sati, Christopher Pike

355. The Inferno, Dante

356. The Apology, Plato

357. The Small Rain, Madeline LEngle

358. The Man Who Tasted Shapes, Richard E Cytowick

359. 5 Novels, Daniel Pinkwater

360. The Sevenwaters Trilogy, Juliet Marillier

361. Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier

362. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf

363. Our Town, Thorton Wilder

364. Green Grass Running Water, Thomas King

335. The Interpreter, Suzanne Glass

336. The Moors Last Sigh, Salman Rushdie

337. The Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson

338. A Passage to India, E.M. Forster loved

339. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky

340. The Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux

341. Pages for You, Sylvia Brownrigg

342. The Changeover, Margaret Mahy

343. Howls Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones

344. Angels and Demons, Dan Brown

345. Johnny Got His Gun, Dalton Trumbo

346. Shosha, Isaac Bashevis Singer

347. Travels With Charley, John Steinbeck

348. The Diving-bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby

349. The Lunatic at Large by J. Storer Clouston

350. Time for Bed by David Baddiel

351. Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold

352. Quite Ugly One Morning by Christopher Brookmyre

353. The Bloody Sun by Marion Zimmer Bradley

354. Sewer, Gas, and Eletric by Matt Ruff

355. Jhereg by Steven Brust

356. So You Want To Be A Wizard by Diane Duane

357. Perdido Street Station, China Mieville

358. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte

359. Road-side Dog, Czeslaw Milosz

360. The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje

361. Neuromancer, William Gibson

362. The Epistemology of the Closet, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick

363. A Canticle for Liebowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr

364. The Mask of Apollo, Mary Renault

365. The Gunslinger, Stephen King

366. Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare

367. Childhoods End, Arthur C. Clarke

368. A Season of Mists, Neil Gaiman

369. Ivanhoe, Walter Scott

370. The God Boy, Ian Cross

371. The Beekeepers Apprentice, Laurie R. King

372. Finn Family Moomintroll, Tove Jansson

373. Misery, Stephen King

374. Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters

375. Hood, Emma Donoghue

376. The Land of Spices, Kate OBrien

377. The Diary of Anne Frank

378. Regeneration, Pat Barker

379. Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald

380. Dreaming in Cuban, Cristina Garcia

381. A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway

382. The View from Saturday, E.L. Konigsburg

383. Dealing with Dragons, Patricia Wrede

384. Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss

385. A Severed Wasp – Madeleine LEngle

386. Here Be Dragons – Sharon Kay Penman

387. The Mabinogion (Ancient Welsh Tales) – translated by Lady Charlotte E. Guest

388. The DaVinci Code – Dan Brown

389. Desire of the Everlasting Hills – Thomas Cahill

390. The Cloister Walk – Kathleen Norris

391. The Things We Carried, Tim OBrien

392. I Know This Much Is True, Wally Lamb

393. Choke, Chuck Palahniuk

394. Enders Shadow, Orson Scott Card

395. The Memory of Earth, Orson Scott Card

396. The Iron Tower, Dennis L. McKiernen

397. Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand

398. A Ring of Endless Light, Madeline L’Engle

399. Lords of Discipline, Pat Conroy

400. Hyperion, Dan Simmons

401. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, Jon McGregor

402. The Bridge, Iain Banks

403. Practical Demonkeeping, Christopher Moore

404. Promethea, Alan Moore

405. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Mark Haddon

406. Archangel, Robert Harris

407. Vernon God Little, Dbc Pierre

408. Ultimate Spiderman, Brian Michael Bendis

409. The Glamour, Christopher Priest

410. The Portrait of Mrs Charbuque, Jeffrey Ford

411. The Third Person, Steve Mosby

412. Psychoville, Christopher Fowler

413. The Street of Crocodiles, Bruno Schulz

414. The Constant Gardener,John Le Carre

415. The Priestess of Avalon,Marion Bradley

416. The Mists of Avalon,Marion Bradley

417. Einstein’s Dreams – Alan Lightman

418. The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread – Pat Robertson

419. Abarat – Clive Barker

420. The City of Beasts – Isabel Allende

421. The House of Spirits – Isabel Allende

422. Ameican Gods – Neil Gaiman

423. Coraline – Neil Gaiman

424. Like Water for Chocolate – Laura Esquivel

425. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – JK Rowling

426. Artemis Fowl and the Eternity Code – Eoin Colfer

427. Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident – Eoin Colfer

428. The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway

429. The Invisible Man – Ralph Waldo Ellison

420. Ogre, Ogre – Piers Anthony

421. Franny and Zooey – J.D. Salinger

422. King Rat – James Clavell

423. Fools Die – Mario Puzo

424. Till We Have Faces, CS Lewis

425. Laughable Loves, Milan Kundera

426. Stardust, Neil Gaiman

427. Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Albom

428. True Love, Robert Fulghum

429. Shopgirl, Steve Martin

430. Chronicles of Narnia Series, CS Lewis

431. Mere Christianity, CS Lewis

Finally!!! My computer is back and my modem is working! Yipee!!! Lots of stuff to blog about. I don’t know where to start!

Angels and Demons

[SPOILER ALERT]

I was so disappointed with Dan Brown after reading this book. It’s EXACTLY like Da Vinci Code! Same characters, just different names. Same plot. Heck, the lead character even wears the same watch (Mickey Mouse watch). It was amusing at first, but it lost its charm because of the repeat. A symbologist is asked to help solve a murder of an important man. He teams up with the victim’s relative (grandchild in Da Vinci Code, adopted daughter in Angels in Demons). It’s really pitiful. Very disappointing. I am so glad that I read Da Vinci Code first, at least I was able to appreciate it.

American Idol

I felt sad for the six people who didn’t make it from the first group. They all sang well. Tough luck that they were part of a very good group. They were all better than everyone in the second group. I’m glad that Camille Velasco was voted in, but objectively, she wouldn’t have made it if she was part of the first group.

I just watched the third group and they were pretty good! Honestly, I didn’t think Latoya was really good. She has a high voice but for me, high voice isn’t synonymous to beautiful voice. But there’s not doubt about it, she was the best in the third group.

Preps Update

I talked to Melissa Lim of Cakeworld last Monday. Cakeworld was the supplier who made this cake:

Her album was very impressive – not a lot of repeats there. And all the cakes were lovely! She said that they always try to make each cake as unique as possible, except when the couple specifically tells them to copy a certain cake. I’m very excited with the cake design that we came up with. I’m just waiting for her quotation and proposal for actual cake design. My only worry during the meeting was the taste. What if the cakes were pretty but they didn’t taste good? My worries disappeared after tasting the carrot cupcake she brought for tasting. I really don’t eat carrot cakes, but I tasted the one she brought and I LOVED IT! The texture was just right, and the touch of chocolate did wonders.

It’s unfortunate that Alex Franco discouraged me from having a cupcake tree for the wedding. He said that by the time the cupcakes are distributed to the guests, they would be dry. I asked the members of W@W if this was true and they said that all the cupcakes they tasted in the weddings they attended were not dry at all. Also, I have already set my mind of having a cupcake tree – it was our first decision for the preps, way before getting the Church. But since Alex Franco is highly recommended, I will still get him for the sponsors’ gifts.

Wedding Expo

I loved this wedding expo! We were able to book suppliers and meet a couple of W@Wies.

It’s official: our photographer will be Dino Lara, our videographer will be Jason Magbanua, our caterer will be Josiah’s Catering, and our florist will be Petal Patch. We were there both days. My mom joined us last Saturday, and we devoted our time to checking each and every stall. Sunday was booking day – the day for downpayments.

I spent some time at the W@W booth. We even took some pictures. I’ll post them soon – I just have to reinstall Photoshop. We got the latest W@W Wedding Primer, which is really very helpful! Lotsa tips, checklists, and information.

Next steps for the preps: give downpayment for the venue, decide on the wedding coordinator (we are still torn between getting Connie or Weng), and decide on an event stylist (either Dorothy Cuna or Balay Kandila).

This is an amazing thriller written by Dan Brown. He was able to cleverly weave together an interesting story, with a conspiracy-theory plot. He made the readers want more, more, more! It’s so hard to put down the book! However, I must say that this is a very dangerous book because it’s so easy for people to believe everything as true. Even if the author uses real events in history and actual groups and people, this is still fiction.

It’s a great read. Promise.

I am currently reading Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. As they said in PinoyExchange, it’s “unputdownable”.

Oh yeah, finished Harry Potter 5 over the weekend. Book isn’t worth the hype that came before it. But well, I had to read it ’cause I wanted to know what happened to Harry after Voldemort came back.

Had dinner in Little Asia last saturday. I really really love the prawns wrapped in bacon.

Now:

Reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Stressed and sick.

Would like to react with a big, fat “Whatever” to some sites.

Not a very positive entry, huh?

I totally forgot that Harry Potter Book 5 will come out today! I heard that National Bookstore actually opened at 7AM just for those who reserved books. I guess I’m not a “fan” anymore. But I’ll still drop by National Bookstore later to see if they still have copies.

I wonder what this will be about…